


The Wood Witch

by artisturtle



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate-Universe, F/F, Fantasy AU, Goddess/Witch!Lena, Help This Fic Is Getting Out of Control, Hunter!Kara, Nia Is a Seer, Once A Two-Part Piece But Now A Three-Part Piece, Polite Smut, Possibly Porn With Plot, Softcore Porn, Supercorp all the way, This Used to Be a Two-Part Piece But Then Became a Three-Part Piece and Now It is a Four-Part Piece
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:36:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29902584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artisturtle/pseuds/artisturtle
Summary: She hadn't really paid attention to her the first time. It's just another hunter, blue-eyed and golden haired like the oh-so many who came hunting through her woodland. She's nothing special. Though her request for a blessing is a bit different from the usual, she hadn't even granted her a blessing to hunt through her woods.But her persistent requests had finally caught her attention the second time, and she finally sees her.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 82
Kudos: 287





	1. Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hello! Here's a new SuperCorp piece for all of you. I hope you enjoy. Please know that this piece is unbeta-ed, probably made in a hurry (at best it was two hours) and published at one in the morning. I hope you forgive me for any untoward mistakes. And oh, yeah. I don't own anything.
> 
> I was thinking of Morgana a lot lately, and I have drawn inspiration from her in conjuring up Goddess/Witch!Lena here. I'm still not exactly sure what Lena here is -- whether she's a witch or a goddess, but ehm, it doesn't matter. This is going to be a two-part piece, and for now, we'll have the first part.
> 
> UPDATE: MARCH 08, 2021
> 
> As an erratum from yesterday's note, this is now no longer a two-part piece but a three-part. I sure did get carried away with all the porn on the second part. Sorry. I hope it didn't ruin the experience of reading for you, though. I hope you still enjoy it.
> 
> UPDATE: MARCH 10, 2021
> 
> This is getting embarrassing. What used to be a two-part piece has now escalated into a four-part piece. Somehow, the story just keeps getting out of my grasps. I apologize for the length this one has gone. I hope it doesn't kill your buzz.

Kara’s boots are soundless as she trudges the leaf-laden forest floor. The hour is young, the sun isn’t up yet, and many critters in the forest are stirring from their sleep. Quick on her steps and nimble-footed, Kara takes long strides through the faded forest path. The path forks into two: one on the right bends behind a boulder and the other on the left descends to a dip in the forest. Kara studies the path for a moment. The path leading to the right is mossy and muddy, with lesser leaves and greenery than the one on the left.

She chooses to go with the right, it’s easier to see animal tracks in muddy ground.

It’s not long until she finds deer tracks on the path she’s following. It’s small, perhaps a young buck, but meat is meat and it is more than enough meat to go around for a few more days. Kneeling on the muddy ground, Kara tries to remember the things her father had taught her during their hunts into the woodland.

The first thing he had taught her was to always ask for the forest’s blessings.

She kneels on the ground, toes pressed to the earth below her and her hands clasping each other. Then, in a whisper, she starts to pray for her request. “If I must hunt, let it be fruitful. Let me honor the life I must take for myself and for others. Let me take what I only need. Let my kill be quick and fast, merciful and easy.”

She sighs, keeping quiet for a moment. Taking a deep breath, Kara opens her eyes and continues to track the buck. It’s not long until she comes up to the stream where she sees the buck drinking. It’s small, barely weaned from its mother, but Kara is poised to kill it anyway.

It has a limping leg. Kara pulls the twine and the arrow gently. Knocking the arrow, she waits as the buck finishes its drink. The arrow is taut and tensed between her fingertips, and she leans back as she stretches it some more.

Kara lets the arrow fly, and the arrow zips through the air, finding purchase at the young buck’s shoulder. It's enough to draw blood, but it's not fatal enough to pin the buck down.

The buck tears through the trees, leaving a trail of blood.

_“If I must hunt, let it be fruitful. Let me honor the life I must take for myself and for others. Let me take what I only need. Let my kill be quick and fast, merciful and easy.”_

She looks up to the source of the voice. It comes far up from the depth of the forests. Sighing, she stands from her seat underneath the rosewood tree. 

She wants to see.

Her steady feet carry her across the forest, with barely a rustle from the leaves. Like a gentle breeze, she floats amongst the trees until she comes across a young girl, barely a woman with golden hair, kneeling between two paths.

"A hunter," she whispers to herself, perusing the girl's sheepskin boots and the fur cloak made of wolf pelt draped upon the golden-haired girl's shoulders. There had been so many hunters in her forest before. This girl is no different.

And yet, it piqued her interest, for the girl had the strangest prayer she had ever heard.

Quietly, she follows her around. It is strange, she thinks, to have such an earnest request. She had seen hunters before, many of them begging for her blessing, all of them asking for a glorious kill.

But this young child had sounded so different from the others.

_Let me honor the life I must take for myself and for others. Let me take what I only need._

Still, she wants to see. She dismisses the request, trying to test if the young girl will stay true to her words should her skills fail her.

She doesn't control who gets to die and who gets to escape the hunters. She even scoffs at the minute perception of men that they have to ask for her permission. Still, it felt nice to be revered, and she could still lend a helping hand to both animals and hunters on some occasions.

This time, she allows nature to take its course and the buck flees to safety.

She hears a sigh of frustration from the girl as the young hunter shakes a fist at the wind.

"My aim's been off!" she grits out before trying to calm herself down. "No matter, I'm sure I can find something else," she says and she's off to forage for food again.

She keeps on following the young hunter but animals in this part of the woods are sparse and minimal. The hunter manages to trap a hare and pick up a few mushrooms along the way by the time the sun has sunk low in the horizon.

Curious, she thinks, as she watches the young hunter kneel at the edge of the forest.

"Thank you for letting me feed," the hunter says. Then, she turns on her heel and quickly heads for the small village half a mile away from the woodland.

“I am back again. I ask your blessings. Let my hunt be fruitful. Let me honor the life I must take for myself and for others. Let me take what I only need. Let my kill be merciful, quick and fast.”

Kara stands on the edge of the woodland. Her bow is slung close to her back, the quiver attached to her hip is full. The cambric pack slung from her back is full of traps. Stepping into the forest floor, her actions become hushed and quiet.

She has a good feeling about it.

The path she's following is winding. There are fewer leaves than the other paths, and it's not long when she finds tracks of a fox.

Quickly, she follows the tracks until it leads her to a small ravine, where the limestone cliff has formed a shallow awning. Looking around, she takes note of the signs of animal dwelling and decides to set up a spring trap. She makes quick work of setting them up, and the sun is not beyond the trees by the time she has finished.

She sets up more traps along the way, taking additional measures to hide them from prying eyes, lest some other hunters come upon her kill and take it for themselves. By mid-morning, she had come across the creek that runs through the forest, and she conceals herself when she remembers the young buck that she had almost caught a few days before.

It’s not long until she sees a glorious doe prancing towards the water. She pushes herself deeper into the shrubbery in an attempt to conceal herself. The doe rears and starts to lap at the water.

Kara knocks an arrow into her bow and a second arrow at the ready. Stilling herself, she draws the taut string as tight as she could before letting it fly into the air. The arrow leaves the bow with a loud _thwack_ and the doe slumps forward.

She hurriedly fits another arrow and lets it fly unceremoniously into the air. Though sloppy, she’s still able to hit the doe’s flank, further thinning out the doe’s chances of escaping. The doe falls to the ground with a thud. 

Kara quickly jumps to her feet. Drawing out her dagger, she makes quick work of finding the large arteries in the doe’s neck. When she finds it, she covers the doe’s eyes with her other hand and a small sigh escapes her lips.

“Let me honor the lives I take for myself and others,” she whispers before pushing her knife into the doe’s neck. 

Blood spills out from the gaping wound, coloring the creek water red. Her blade is sharp, and in no time, she has managed to clean up the doe. Once she’s done, she gathers a few sturdy vines and branches to fashion a travois where she could carry the doe in. Strapping the doe to the travois, Kara starts the long journey back home, picking up the traps she’d set up along her way.

She watches as the young hunter takes down the path that leads to the village. Her eyes follow the hunter as she disappears behind the cover of tall grass. The sun is high up in the sky, there’s a gentle breeze blowing through. The stench of kill permeates the air, but she’s used to the smell of it by now. She turns back towards the woodland that she calls home.

“Curious,” she whispers to herself when she comes upon one of the hunter’s disabled traps.

 _Why would she leave her traps disabled? Is the deer already enough?_ She almost laughs to herself when she remembers the young hunter’s prayer.

_Let me take what I only need._

She smiles. The hunter had stayed true to her words and kept her requests. Even in killing the doe she had been quick and fast, merciful even. The hunter had sought her blessing even though she did not need it.

From then on, she found herself seeking the young hunter whenever she could feel her presence inside her forests. She found herself drawn to the hunter with eyes like the sky and hair like golden corn. She silently tracks behind her as she hunts, watching as the warmth in her eyes light up at the sight of prey, only for the same fire to be doused with sadness when she draws out her prey’s breath.

Sometimes, she’d silently curse her when the hunter spends the morning napping in the trees after setting up her traps, squandering her youth and her mortality. Still, the hunter only took what is needed and never sought more. Even within the hunt, the hunter had always shown compassion. She had watched her numerous times when she had more than enough, and she’d let go of some of the captured animals in her traps.

She watched her grow taller and stronger. She watched her grow surer of every step she takes within the woodland. Through it all, the hunter had kept her simple prayer. 

Through it all, she watched her in silence.

“If you’re going to continue following me, you might as well join me. I know you’re in there, in the tree,” the hunter says. The hunter does not yell, but it’s loud enough for her to hear.

She almost loses her footing on the tree she’s perched upon. She had never been spotted before, not unless she’d show herself. She had been so concealed under the eaves of trees that there’s no way she could be seen.

_How is the hunter able to see her?_

Still, she reminds herself that the hunter is none like any other hunters she’d ever encountered and that the hunter is smarter than what she had given her credit for. So, she steps out of the shadows of the trees and she shows herself.

“I’m Kara, although I have a feeling you already know that,” the hunter says. “And who are you?”

She nods. She knows the hunter’s name is Kara, although she doesn’t tell Kara _how she exactly knew about it._ She also knows that Kara has an idea of who she is -- and if not who she is, she knows Kara has an idea of **_what she is_** _._

She also knows that someone of her stature doesn’t take too lightly at names. In fact, her sisters had discouraged giving names just to anyone. It’s proving to be a question more difficult to answer. She swallows dryly. She’s about to reveal a name that has never been heard by any mortal ear before.

“Lena,” she almost whispers, shy and bashful. “You can call me Lena.”

“Well,” Kara shrugs, resting herself on a boulder. “Why do you follow me in these woods?”

_Why did she follow her, indeed?_

A surge of embarrassment floods through her. She doesn’t have a reason why she had to follow Kara as she hunts, other than the fact that she is drawn to her. Her cheeks burn with heated shame at being caught and her temper flares.

“Why seek a blessing when you do not need it?” she counters, but Kara just shrugs.

“Why not?” the hunter says. “So, you are the guardian they speak of. I didn’t know you have a name.”

Her temper increases tenfold. How insolent this human is! It even irks her now that Kara is just looking at her with wild and earnest blue eyes. What would she give to wipe off that insolent, dreamy-look on that hunter’s eyes!

“Well now you know I have a name,” Lena says with a huff. “And you ought to remember that we do not give them away freely,” she harshly grits out, and a part of her feels bad when she sees Kara’s face falling a little.

But then, Kara’s eyes roll a bit at her and the smile is back on her face. “Well, Lena, should we go now? Are you going to join me as usual?”

Confounded, it plants Lena to the ground again, quite unsure of what to say and how to deflect such a question. She stares openly at the hunter, who’s just looking at her with warmth in her blue eyes. _How long had Kara known that she’d been following her?_

All she could do is nod.

Kara seems to get it, and she nods back before walking back to the path, heading off deeper into the forest and Lena had to catch up and join her at her side.

Since then, Lena doesn’t have to hide any longer. Instead, she’d wait for Kara on one of the boulders close to the edge of the forest, and she’d help Kara set up the traps early in the morning. Since they’d finish early, Kara would suggest that they do something else to pass the time. Sometimes, they spar and sport. Sometimes, they trade stories and Kara would teach Lena archery. Sometimes, Lena would take Kara to the hidden treasures of the forest, into caves and waterfall. 

More often than not, they would take a dip in the pristine waters of several pools located on the southern side of the forest.

“Your home, it wasn’t this forest, was it? What was it like?” Kara asks as she drifts lazily across the water. She watches Lena, who is now rested on a flat-surfaced rock and is now soaking the afternoon sun into her skin.

Lena laughs. “Well, I do have a brother. I lived in a castle.”

“Does he come here often? Do you miss it?”

Lena rolls on her eyes. “I haven’t seen him in years. I don’t miss my home. This forest is my home now,” she snorts. “What about you, your sister...has she been back from that port town she had left for?”

“She and father will be home next moonturn,” Kara supplies, making small ripples as she flaps her arms across the water. “She’d lose her mind if I ever show her this place. Why don’t you join me here, Lena?”

Lena sighs, finally dragging herself off the rock and into the water. Her hair is long and dark, and it reflects the sunbeams that hit it. Her skin is white like alabaster, smooth, and sinewy. A slight blush adorns her cheeks, and Kara is compelled to look away from the closer Lena gets to her.

Lena dips her legs into the pool. “It’s cold.”

“It’s not! Stop being such a wuss,” the blue-eyed hunter sorely says.

“If you call me a wuss again, I’m going to curse you,” Lena threatens, but they both know it’s an empty threat and Kara just grins at her.

“Get in here, you wuss!” Kara laughs, pulling Lena into the water.

They stay in the water for some time, drifting across the placid pool as if they’re clouds drifting across the sky. Kara watches as Lena closes her eyes, seemingly asleep, as she floats across the pool. Kara feels her breath hitch as she watches the ethereal beauty in front of her. Her heart pounds against her ear when her eyes travel to the perfect chest peeking just above the water, nipples invitingly straining hard against Lena’s smallclothes.

It comes as an unbidden thought to her, but she’s thought of the numerous hexes Lena could inflict on her should she try to kiss her.

“Like what you see?” Lena coyly asks, her eyes remaining closed.

Kara immediately turns around, her cheeks burning at the shame of being caught. There’s terrible wetness between her legs, something she knows that is not because of the water they’re currently swimming in.

Kara almost jumps out of her skin when she feels tender, lithe hands snaking over her shoulders. A hot breath tickles at her earlobe, and it’s enough to make Kara lose all of her inhibitions and her sensibility.

The temptation is thick and heady, and the air is filled with it.

“You did not?” Lena’s voice is husky, coated with heady want and need and -- _something else._

“I...I...” Kara stutters, no words could ever form in her head. At least, not when Lena is _this close_ to her. “I’m...I do-don’t...”

Kara hears a small laugh escaping Lena’s mouth, her hot breath deliciously licking at her bare shoulders and Kara physically shudders at their proximity. It kills her to be this close to Lena and not be able to turn her head around. She tightly clamps her legs together in an effort to still herself.

“You amuse me,” Lena whispers before drifting away with a few splashes. “I enjoy your company, Kara. So much.”

Finally, after calming herself, she turns to face Lena. The dark-haired beauty is looking at her with piercing green eyes. A sliver of sunlight falls over her head, and the reflection of light in the water gives her an ethereal, otherworldly glow. She swims close to Kara, and her warm hand clasps Kara’s own.

Her eyes are open and honest as they meet Kara’s blue ones. “I pray that you also enjoy my company, and you treasure our time together.”

The seasons start to shift. Kara and Lena still go on hunts together. They still go swimming together in the pools. Their time together only made their attachment and their bond grow. Each knows exactly what the other wants.

“Kara,” Lena calls from her reclining position on the smooth rock as she dries her long, dark hair. Her robes ride high up her thighs, revealing milky-white skin underneath it. Kara looks up from where she’s tying the twines of her jerkin. 

“Yes, what is it?”

Lena’s eyes are searching hers, full of hope and yearning. “Will you stay the night?” she asks in a small voice.

It sends a flutter tearing through Kara’s ribs. Lena had never asked her to stay the night before. She doesn’t know why, but she never did. She had secretly wanted her to ask her to stay, but she did not want to overstep boundaries.

“I would love to, Lena.”

At this, Lena smiles. She gathers her skirts up and steps close to Kara. She gathers Kara’s belt and starts to help Kara dress up. She picks up Kara’s tunic and pulls it over Kara’s head. Then, she takes the hunter’s leather jerkin and dons it on Kara.

“Let me tie the knots for you,” she says softly, and Kara lets her.

“Is it too tight?” Lena asks her, but Kara just shakes her head.

Somehow, being so close to Lena is rendering her speechless. Thankfully, Lena is taking charge this time. She cradles Kara’s hand in hers and they start the walk away from the pools. Despite the lengthening shadows and the darkening twilight, they are taking slow steps through the forest, as if they are never hurrying up. And instead of taking the path that leads outside the forest, Lena leads them deeper into the woods where the shadows grow tall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And yeah, thank you for reading this piece, I hope you enjoyed. If you really like this, give this a kudos.
> 
> Follow my Twitter @artisturtle and let's be friends. :)


	2. Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello All, here's another chapter of The Wood Witch Series! I hope you will like it.
> 
> Anyway, so I'm just very sleepy right now, I apologize for the very messy writing and all that, but still, I hope you enjoy.

Lena lives in a cottage deep within the forest. It is made with earthen walls and earthen floors. The cottage is built into the face of a cliff where one could only reach it if they take the hidden stairs. Her home, while simple and rustic, is clean and orderly. There’s not much of value around, no gilded floors or golden cups or gemstones of wondrous sizes. However, there is a simple harp lying in a corner of her room and a reclining seat facing the eastern sky.

Lena leads Kara down the room, allowing her to seat herself on the reclining seat. The stone under her feet is smooth, and the breeze around the house smells faintly of pine, smoke, and mountain ice.

“Make yourself comfortable,” Lena tells her as she pours a carafe of wine into copper goblets. She takes one to Kara and she keeps one to herself. “This is my home in the mountains, and this should be your home as well.”

Kara takes a sip of the sweet wine. “Thank you, Lena. For bringing me here.”

Lena smiles at her, as though she is privy to something only she knows about. “You do me a great favor, Kara. For keeping me company. I enjoy all of it as much as you do.”

Dinner that night is a quiet affair. It consisted of meat roasted over the fire, fresh fruits, and sweet cheese. They washed it down with the wine. After dinner, Lena plays a song on her harp while Kara listens to her. When Lena is done, an utter stillness falls on them. It’s as though the stillness is covered with a sense of sadness that Kara knows not.

“You don’t look happy,” Lena says.

Kara shakes her head. “I...I don’t understand. Your music is beautiful, but...now I just feel empty. Like the music has gone away and it’s just sad.”

Lena smiles. “It’s not as sad as you think it is,” she says. Gathering her skirts, she walks to Kara and gracefully holds up her hand for her to take. “Come, I will show you something. Walk with me.”

The woodland is different at nighttime. Sure, she has been in the woodlands for times when there’s little light, even in deep twilight, but she has never been inside the forest when the night is deep and the hour is late. It’s a warm night, and stars are out in the clear skies. The moon is low and gibbous in the eastern skies.

“There’s a certain peace when you walk amongst trees in the darkness,” Lena whispers, her hand warm and firm against Kara’s. “And if you listen long and hard enough, you’ll hear the stars singing in the night.”

The forest is quiet, but there’s the stirring of nocturnal animals and it makes Kara feel like she is seeing a different side of Lena this time. She feels like she’s seeing a different side of the world. The two of them continue walking through the paths in the forest, drifting underneath the moonlight until they reach a clearing.

“Why don’t you look up?” Lena asks and Kara does what she’s told.

It’s more than enough to take Kara’s breath away. The stars are so bright, so beautiful. They’re all scattered across the skies, like powdery dust drifting over the dark, black night. Her eyes are taking in the wondrous work in front of her, taking in and taking stock.

She feels Lena’s arms snaking around her waist. She feels the warmth of Lena’s body on her back, and she lets out a shuddering breath.

“Like what you see?” Lena whispers, her breath hot and heavy against her ear and it immediately brings Kara back to that afternoon where the temptation had been too much. Kara’s mouth runs dry.

“I...I do,” she finally stutters out and Lena lets out a small laugh. "It's beautiful, Lena. Th-thank you for showing me this."

She feels Lena tug at her arm, coaxing her to turn around. When she does, she turns to a pair of eyes, and it's not the first time Kara's breath is taken away by the colors of Lena's eyes.

One is the color of the deep blue sea, the other the shade of spring.

"You...you're so beautiful," she finally draws out, and it causes a smirk to form on Lena's lips.

"As you are," Lena whispers back. Lena runs a gentle finger on Kara's lips.

The moon paints them in the silvery half-light, and a cool breeze makes the hair on Kara’s skin tickle. Lena lays a warm hand on Kara's arm, and a shuddering sigh escapes Kara's throat. She lowers her gaze, averting Lena's eyes.

She feels lithe fingers lifting her chin, and she’s lost again in a sea and verdant spring.

"How you wound me, if you refuse to believe how I think of you," Lena whispers as she leans forwards, barely grazing her forehead against Kara's. "I see the sky in your eyes. I feel you all the time, Kara."

At that moment, the gap between them crumbles. Kara stares deep into Lena's eyes. "I fear I may take too much from you, for I am never your equal, for you are not of this realm and I deserve you not."

"Do not think so low of yourself," Lena says, almost a broken plea, almost a benevolent prayer. "You are my equal, Kara. You hunt with me, you spar with me, spend your days with me. We feel the same warmth from the sun, we drink from the same spring, and we feel the same emptiness when the music fades. Where you stand now and where I stand now, we are both under the same stars, yes?"

Kara nods. The words have escaped her.

"I shall only take what you allow of me," Lena finally whispers in reverence. "If you allow it."

She nods her agreement. Lena leans closer, closer than she has ever been and Kara feels drunk on the scent of pine and smoke and -- something else entirely, something primal, something that is between the forest and her dreams.

The next thing she feels is the softness between her lips and the taste of summer on her tongue.

"I shall only take what you allow of me," Lena repeats.

"I shall only take what you allow of me," Kara replies as she lays Lena's hands in her leather-covered breasts. "And this I shall give freely."

With a shaking hand, Lena unties the leather cords of Kara's jerkin, her fingertips dancing erratically against the smoothness of the leather. Lena's mouth hasn't left Kara's mouth, the other hand artfully squeezing the hunter's chest.

Kara lets out a moan, the sound reverberating through her throat deliciously. It echoes through the still night and elicits a string of laughter from Lena's mouth.

"For a hunter, you sure do know how to wake an entire forest," Lena whispers playfully into Kara's chest. Kara lets out another shuddering breath, surrendering herself into the ministrations of the dark-haired beauty whose lips are latched onto the shallow dip where her chest meets her neck.

A surge of wetness pools between her legs, and as Kara tries to clamp her legs shut, the wayward hand that's once kneading her breasts is now between her trembling legs.

"You wound me," Lena whispers against her ear. "To restrain yourself like that, as though I do not deserve to know."

"I…" Kara pauses. She feels the heat stifling, and her cheeks are burning.  _ Why is she so shy? _

"It's alright. Come here," Lena assures her before she guides her underneath a large cypress. 

The ground is mossy, as though the ground is not made of earth, but is a carpeted floor. Taking her dark cambric robe off, Lena manages to make a makeshift bed on the velvety forest floor. Lena gently pushes Kara down the ground, her legs straddling Kara by the waist. The leather jerkin has now come loosely undone, the cords long discarded and Kara's cambric undershirt is now exposed.

Kara shivers, but it's not because of the cold. Instead, it's because of the warm hand that lays flat across her stomach.

"I shall only take what you allow of me," Lena whispers again, and Kara welcomes her into an embrace.

Lush lips capture Kara's in a heated kiss, tounges exploring and delving, testing just how far they could go and how bold they could be. The wayward hands are back again, underneath Kara's undershirt, kneading and teasing the tight, stiff nipple.

Kara lets out a strangled moan.

"Do you like it?" Lena asks, and she proudly smirks when Kara simply nods.

Their wordless actions spur Lena on her wayward hands getting bolder and bolder with each stroke. In one instance, Kara feels a surge of boldness coursing through her, and her hands find purchase on the curve of Lena's breast.

The hand just above Kara's thighs pause.

Eyes like the ocean and the spring and Kara meet them bravely. "I shall only take what you allow of me," she whispers, breath hot against her face.

It lights a fire low in Kara's belly when something catches fire in Lena's haunting eyes. Lena's hands become more deliberate, more expressive of their intentions. The fire in Kara's belly rages when she feels Lena's palm cupping the sweet spot between her legs. Lena's tender fingertips tentatively work their way through her breeches, pulling gently but firmly down Kara's legs.

"I shall only take what you will allow of me and only if you allow it," Lena says as she leans her forehead on Kara's own. Her blue-and-green eyes now seek approval, and with a slow nod, Kara grants her the approval Lena had craved.

"I shall give this freely, if you shall take it," Kara says back.

Like a dam breaking, Lena hurriedly takes Kara's lips into her own, the hands roaming all over their bodies now back with a burning fervor none of them could place. Kara could feel the slow-burning fire low in her belly once again.

A surge of courage floods through her being and she bravely slips a hand under Lena's robes without second thoughts. Kara could feel hot, moist wetness under her palm. The dark-haired woman lets out a hiss. 

"Do...do you not like it?" she pulls away slightly and asks worriedly, but Lena is surging forward once more, her head shaking.

"No, no my sweet," Lena says softly, her chest heaving as she stills herself by bracing herself against the cypress trunk just behind Kara. "I...you just startled me, is all. I never knew I wanted it until you gave it to me."

"Oh," Kara mumbles, and she's about to say something else when Lena's lips are on hers again.

At that point, all words escape Kara’s mouth.

Kara chooses to just sigh into Lena's mouth, especially when hands find the wetness pooling between Lena's legs once again. She gathers her wits about her, taking note of how to flick her wrists to cause the sweetest moans to fall from Lena’s mouth. She takes note of how to push and pull and hold until Lena, this wonderful, beautiful, magnificent being  **_begs for her._ **

She’s drunk and heady for the power she wields over Lena. 

Tentative and hesitant, she runs an index finger over Lena’s moistened slit. She doesn’t even bother with the robes, she just bunches them above Lena’s waist. Lena is heaving, her eyes closed, her brows contorted in sweet pleasure. She dips into her moist cavern and Lena lets out a soft moan.

“M-more...” Lena mewls helplessly. “I need you more inside me,” she breathlessly admits as she clings to Kara’s neck.

The admission spurs Kara to delve deeper, adding a middle finger. Lena hisses at the intrusion, but it is welcomed warmly. Leaning forwards, Kara sucks on the rise of Lena’s collarbone as she starts to push inside and pull outside in a sloppy, staccato rhythm.

“Faster,” Lena whispers brokenly, her grip on Kara’s shoulders becoming increasingly tight. “I need you faster,” she begs. 

Keeping her eyes wide open, she watches Lena ride her fingertips. She watches as Lena’s dark hair falling into tresses, a dark waterfall framing her face basking in aching pleasure. With keen interest, Kara watches as Lena’s face contort as she curls her index finger inside her. She curls once more, and she could feel Lena’s nails dig into her.

It comes unbidden.

Lena’s body spasms uncontrollably, her grip goes  **_so tight_ ** and Kara is sure that Lena’s nails had drawn some skin and blood by the way she’s gripping her shoulders. Kara stills her fingertips inside Lena, occasionally moving them in the gentlest ways possible, only to have Lena spasm uncontrollably again.

“Heavens,” Lena finally says, her body going slack and relaxed as she falls next to where Kara is sleeping. She stares deep into Kara’s eyes and she leans up to plant a long, drawn-out kiss on Kara’s lips before curling into the hunter’s side.

Kara tracks the curve of Lena’s jaw, the dip of her smirk, the curve of her smile, the arch of her brow, and the colors of her eyes as the dark-haired woman looks up at her in content peacefulness. She couldn’t help but be drawn to her eyes. There is a depth that only the forest could offer, there’s a wildness in her eyes that no one can tame.

There is a sort of freedom in the wind trapped in Lena’s hair. Her heart is what Kara had only found in the forests, in the creatures it offers -- it’s something that could be hunted but never captured.

“I shall only take what you will allow of me,” Lena whispers, and she raises her body so she could plant a kiss on Kara’s lips once more.

Kara hums into the kiss. “And I shall give it to you freely.”

Lena takes the remainder of Kara’s clothes off, pulling her breeches completely off her legs. Kneeling on the ground between Kara’s legs, Lena starts to plant butterfly kisses on the insides of Kara’s thighs, her kisses growing bolder and bolder, lingering longer and longer the closer she gets to Kara’s womanhood.

“Please...” Kara moans.

Lena smirks into the soft skin that housed the downy, golden curls that adorned Kara’s moistened womanhood. “In a moment, my sweet. Let me relish in your scent,” she says before flicking a sharp tongue out and taking a taste from Kara’s glistening slit.

Kara lets out a sigh. “Please, Lena...inside...”

Lena leans forward. Instead of delving her fingers into Kara, she spreads the blonde hunter’s legs apart and puts her head between Kara’s legs. The scent is heady and strong, and Lena is drunk off the arousal that permeates the air. Flattening out her tongue, she licks the moistened folds and she feels Kara’s back arch.

Using her hands, she grabs one of Kara’s breasts, kneading it gently as she licks Kara. Her tongue dives deep into the hunter, her tongue drunk of the wanton need that floods over her. With the flat of her thumb, Lena pinches Kara’s nipple, making the girl moan loudly.

She could feel Kara getting close. The tightening coil in her thighs is a telltale sign that she’s almost close to the edge. It’s not long before Lena could feel the shaking reverberating through Kara’s flesh, and a desperate, aching cry of pleasure tearing through the hunter’s throat. Kara’s body arcs as she shudders, as though an earthquake had happened inside her.

“Gods!” she mewls, her body arching towards Lena and the dark-haired beauty is there to catch her as she comes undone.

Lena lets her ride the ebb and flow of her pleasure.

When Kara opens her eyes, they’re so blue and dilated, drunk off of lust and want. “Gods, you are so beautiful,” Kara whispers to her as she lets her head fall onto the mossy ground. The hunter curls into Lena’s side, her breath hot and warm on her bare chest.

Lena lets out a laugh. “Keep saying that and my kind might just pop out here any minute,” she jokes, planting a soft kiss on the curve of Kara’s brow as she pulls the robe over their bodies to ward off the cold. “We should get some sleep, my sweet. I am spent. Morning is far ahead.”

The next day dawns crisp and clear. Lena is the first one to wake. She stays for a while, watching Kara’s chest rise and fall quietly. All around her, the birds start bringing them fruits and flowers, offering their tributes to their mistress.

“I thank all of you,” Lena says as she dismisses them with a graceful hand. She takes Kara’s water skin and with a flick of her hand, she weaves out water from the dew around them. Once done, she had artfully arranged the fruits and flowers before waking her lover up.

“Good morning, my sweet,” she whispers into Kara’s ear.

The hunter smiles, even before she had opened her eyes. “I had a dream and I dreamed of you,” she tells Lena. “And it was beautiful.”

Lena smiles, planting a soft kiss on the inside of Kara’s wrist. “A sweet dream indeed.”

Breakfast has been short and sweet. Kara tells Lena that she’ll head back to the village, else the village will have to come looking for her. Lena tells Kara that she’ll have matters to attend to as well, but she won’t be opposed to walking Kara as far as the forest edge.

“Will you be home by sundown?” Lena asks as they stand at the edge of the forest, and it’s not lost on the two of them that Lena had already considered her home as Kara’s  **_home._ **

Kara smiles. “Of course,” she says. “I’ll try not to be so late.”

“I’ll wait,” Lena promises her. 

She watches as Kara trudges the dusty path that leads back to the village. When Kara is no longer in sight, only did she leave to go deep into the woodland. However, it doesn’t escape her when she notices that the forest is quiet.

A raven caws in the distance, mocking and obstinately loud.

**_Someone is here._ **

Another raven caws. When she looks up, she sees seven ravens circling ahead. She remembers her brother, who even at a young age, has always harbored an affinity for the dark birds with the bloodshot eyes.

**_Dark wings, dark words._ **

The ravens are getting close. They circle the sky, closer and closer to each other. Faster and faster, the ravens fly past her. A single feather, dark and inky and black like the night, falls softly in the air.

“Lena,” a voice calls her, and when she turns to see who it is, she’s met with the spitting image of her father. Something villainous and rotten bubbles to her throat and she tries her hardest not to kick him or hex him in the face.

But, she stills her tongue and holds her head up high as she addresses him. “Lex,” she says by way of greeting, even though her tone is cold and clipped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little piece. If you really like this, give this a kudos. Thanks a lot!
> 
> Follow my Twitter @artisturtle and let's be friends. :)


	3. Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all, yes. Forgive me. This is the second part of the extra chapters. I know, I know, you might be thinking -- what the hell? There's another chapter? Crud, more reading time. Are we ever going to get an ending? To be honest, I am getting kind of annoyed with this situation. I am such a planner that when things do not go my way, I tend to sh** my pants. But I kind of like the idea that this is becoming spontaneous as well, like, even I have some sort of clueless bliss as to what this path the story will take. It is weird. I'm sure I probably make no sense right now.
> 
> Still, I have no control over most of these things, I let the story unfold anyway. So, I hope this additional chapter did not kill your buzz or anything. Also, big apologies for any grammatical errors. I wrote this at 2 AM with only Grammarly on my side.
> 
> And oh yeah, bonus points to anyone who can point out where I got the inspiration from this story from. HINT: It's a very old story, something written in the stars for all to see. If you know the answer, let me know in the comments section.

“I know of what you’re doing,” Lex says as he takes a step towards her, his dark-gray robes of smoke and darkness faintly trailing behind him. The smoky tendrils rise like tentacles at the base of his feet, and where he goes, the foliage almost wilts.

The words are spoken quietly, but it stops Lena from her tracks. Lex is not known for many words, and it would do her well to take note of his stony face as he advances towards her.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Lena averts her eyes from him, focusing her gaze on a young flower that’s about to bloom some few yards away from her. The bells tied to Lex’s robes ring a little, and their tune is somber and menacing at the same time.

“I think you exactly know what I mean,” he laughs. It’s condescending and evil. “You’ve been with those mortal men for far too long. I know you spend your days with them, dine with them, take part in their hunts.”

Something acidic curls in Lena’s tongue. Perhaps, Lex may be speaking on false assumptions, and he has no idea who Kara is, but her brother still speaks of the truth, regardless if he thought that it was with a man she had spent her days with.

“I know you lie with them,” Lex spits out as if he had just tasted something nasty.

Two could play this game, she thinks to herself. Her face contorts on a stony expression. “So now you spy on me, brother?” the venom in her voice creeps. It holds the promise of danger, an unspoken threat, and Lex abruptly takes a step back.

Her brother composes himself for a moment. “You dare mock me. It is not in my nature to spy on my kin and blood,” he finally says. “But it has come to my attention that some, in particular, have accrued your most tender favors.”

_So he knows about Kara._

“I just don’t want you to run into trouble,” Lex says. “If I have noticed, it won’t be long before the others do. That is if they haven’t already. Soon enough, one of Father’s will hear and he’ll know. You need to stop seeing your beloved hunter, for you know what danger that could happen.”

Lena’s lips remain a thin line, her head held high as she looks at her brother straight in the eye. “We weren’t doing anything wrong if that is what you are worried about.”

"It is not what I am worried about," Lex says. "What will happen should you give yourself up wholly to them? Hunters in your woodland rely on your favor. I don't think it is fair of you to pick just one to your liking. What if they want what you cannot give?"

_I shall only take what I need, if you allow it of me._

Lena holds her head high. She bites her lower lip, stopping her tears from falling from her eyes. Lex and her father had always berated her for crying so quickly. They had always reminded her that emotions are for mortal men, not for beings of her stature. And yet, here she is, sucking at the insides of her cheek just to keep the tears from falling.

“You know that I do not speak of things that are not true, little sister,” Lex whispers as he runs a gnarled hand against Lena’s ivory cheeks. The dark, inky tentacles lick themselves on the unblemished skin of Lena’s neck, snaking and curling like a ghastly behemoth.

It makes Lena’s skin crawl. How terrible Lex makes her feel, that even the warmth left by Kara’s lips had left had now shriveled into a burning ember.

“Ah, you see the truth in my words,” Lex clucks his lips. “Your puny little hunters will soon realize how far you have fallen for them, and then they’ll use it to their advantage, take as much as they want from you without thinking, not taking what they only need -- and you will allow it, for your affections have betrayed you.”

“I will not have my affections betray me,” Lena says, though she says it with lesser conviction than she had intended. Lex doesn’t cotton on to it, though. Like a thorn on her throat, she forces the words out. “I just enjoy their company, and I find them interesting. That is all.”

Lex takes a deep breath before returning his gaze to her. “Lena, you aren’t just the guardian of this forest. Father had already allowed you to stay here as you have asked. You do not just command creatures of the forest to do your bidding, but you are their protector. You were sworn to never marry and to never tie your love to any man. If you continue this twisted path, there is no telling of what the consequences may be.”

Lena’s eyes flare with a fire, unlike the ones she shares with Kara. “It is not twisted!” she angrily heaves. “None of it is! I know what I protect and I know my duties. I know what is at stake and you’d do well not scorn me by reminding me of my responsibilities as if I am a child. I do not need your reminding.”

Lex shrugs, his face is indifferent. “Then, if you are not a child as you say you are, let go of this folly before it becomes too late. Before all of this will bear its ugly fruit. Someone of your stature should never squander their affections on mere mortals.”

She scoffs. “You insult me. Why do you think I would squander my affections with them?”

“Then do not spend your days with them! Do not think of them! Let it go, let them go, Lena. Let them be. Let them marry one of their own, let them grow old and die. For ashes they come from and ashes shall they go when they are dead.”

Her brother’s mouth twists into an accusing, menacing grimace. “You are not of their kind, I hope you haven't forgotten **_what you are._ **”

Lena’s eyes mist over and she turns around so Lex could not see the dark-grey clouds that gather in her eyes. The very thought of letting Kara go makes her chest tighten as if a vice-like grip has seized her chest. If she lets Kara go, her days would now be cold and lonely. If she lets Kara go, her nights will be empty. 

Even now, she wants to be with Kara.

The idea that someone else will have to take that mantle and spend the rest of their days with Kara makes her stomach do an ugly flip. And yet, she knows that Lex is right. Lex has only told her the ugly truth of their nature. She had been blind to her feelings. She had chosen Kara above anyone else.

_How did it escape her? When had her heart been ensnared and captured by the hunter whose hair is the color of a summer afternoon and whose eyes are the skies?_

“How did you know it was affection when I did not?” she says, holding back the tears as she walks away from the clearing where Lex stands. She reminds herself not to cry. She tells herself that she’d keep her tears with what’s left of her pride.

“I have seen the look in your eyes,” Lex says, even though Lena is long gone before he had given her an answer. “I know how you look at **_her._ **”

Kara comes back long before the last bit of light fades into twilight. She had brought in her caught game with her, and she skins them in front of Lena’s modest hearth, and Lena kneaded dough on the table.

“You are quick with your hands,” Lena notes as Kara finishes skinning the rabbit.

“You are good with them,” Kara quips, raising a playful brow. They both know they're not just talking about food preparation. Even in the pale-gold light coming from the brazier, Kara could see the tinge of pink coloring Lena’s cheeks. “Now you are blushing.”

Lena gives Kara a small, shy smile. She puts the bread into one of the wooden bowls to let it stand for a while. She moves to chop some greens, carrots, and potatoes that Kara had brought with her. When she is done, she helps Kara stuff the rabbit into a wooden spit and roasts it over the hearth. Then, she loads the bread into the brick oven.

"Today was a good day?" Lena asks, and Kara just hums.

"The game was plenty, so I had to let go of some animals as I went home. I brought partridges to my sister and my parents,” Kara mutters as she eyes the roasting rabbit. “So, I suppose it’s a good day. I got a good nap by the glen, watching clouds during the afternoon. Was today a good day for you, though?"

Lena nods, refusing to look at Kara in the eye. "Today was a bit eventful," she finally says. "My brother came to say hello."

"He did?" Kara asks with interest. "Did it go well?"

Lena smiles as she takes the bread out of the kiln and she lets it cool on a wooden plate. "It went as well as possible, as family reunions can go. He was less unpleasant than the last time we spoke."

Kara nods, and she moves to gather cutlery, bowls, and goblets. She sets the table, pouring themselves sweet summerwine. Lena takes out the bread, and the rabbit comes off the spit not long after. They sit close to each other, opposite to what is customary of man and wife, but instead as equals. Kara hefts the rabbit’s loin and saddle, which are both tender and juicy, and she puts it on Lena’s plate.

“It’s the best cut of meat from a rabbit,” Kara smiles at her as she takes the hind legs and stuffs her mouth with potatoes. “Come on, eat up. The stew is good. Oh I know, dip some of your bread into the stew, I swear it tastes perfect!”

Lena does as she’s told, and she finds herself agreeing to the hunter. Her talk with Lex wasn’t brought up again, even though she could tell that Kara wants so much to know. Here and there, Kara tries to drop little hints that she wants to talk about it, but she pretends not to notice them.

“You shouldn’t squander your youth away by sleeping the day off,” she chides Kara when Kara asks about what she did during the day. Subtly throughout dinner, Kara had been trying to gauge what happened to her conversation with Lex.

Kara frowns. “I wasn’t squandering it, I was waiting for animals in my traps. What am I supposed to do then? Throw rocks in the river?”

“You could’ve called for me,” Lena smiles as she starts to gather their bowls and the plates. “I would have come to you in a heart’s beat.”

“Hmph, and at what cost? I’ll have to take you away from your duties as guardian of this forest? I’ll only take what I need,” Kara shrugs. She motions to the room around them. “This? This is more than enough for me, Lena. I can be with you when the night drapes its cloak over the land, I can walk nourished and fed in your forests and your waters. I can have you, just as you are, and that is all I need. So this I will take for myself, and only when you allow it.”

Lena’s hands stay still. She thinks to herself. 

**_This is where Lex is wrong. For Kara would always have enough of this world, for she will always only take what she needs._** **_What does Lex know of affection? Darkness knows nothing but death and decay, and the shadows have no room for stirrings of the heart._**

“Will it be alright if I play the harp for you? You can do whatever you want to do while you listen,” Lena asks as she sits by the harp. They had just finished dinner, and the moon had started to peek through the darkness, and the stars have started their nightly march across the skies. It is a beautiful night out, and Lena did not want to spend it in silence.

“I’d like to watch the stars while you play for me. Somehow, you and your music and the stars above us bring me an odd sense of comfort,” Kara smiles at her, and Lena gives a nod in return. 

They walk to the spacious ledge outside Lena’s cottage. It’s a cool night, and a breeze that smells of winter pine is blowing in from the tall mountain peaks that towered like sentinels above them. Tonight, the moon hangs low in the western sky, the darkness punctuated by the melody of crickets and cicadas singing out of tune.

Lena plucks the first few strings of her harp and music fills the air.

For a while, neither of them say anything. Kara soundlessly lays her head on Lena’s lap, counting the stars as Lena plays her harp. She keeps counting the stars until her eyes grow deep and heavy with sleep.

When she opens her eyes, the music is gone and she feels Lena’s warm lips on her forehead.

“Come now, my sweet. It is time we go to bed,” Lena whispers to her as the dark-haired beauty hoists her up. Together, they walk back to the cottage and fall into the furs and the softness of the down-filled mattress close to the burning hearth.

Kara curls up to Lena’s side. “What time is it?”

Lena places a gentle kiss on Kara’s temple. “The night is still young.”

The blonde-haired hunter lets out a groan, sitting herself up on the bed. She turns to Lena and she smiles. “I’m sorry, I fell asleep. Come here, I shall make it up to you,” she says as she pulls Lena’s lips into her own.

The kiss quickly escalates to roaming hands. Kara moans when Lena’s hand starts to bravely venture their way underneath her tunic, stroking and having their fill. She lets out a hiss of pleasure when she feels Lena’s fingers circling the sensitive nub of her nipples.

“Gods, Lena. Keep going,” Kara encourages the hungry hands trying to take her in.

“Too much...” Lena whispers as she frantically tries to pull Kara’s shirt over her blonde head. “Too many clothes...”

Kara realizes Lena’s struggle, and so she hastily pulls the obtrusive shirt over her head. Her skin prickles against the cold air, goosebumps swelling all over her skin, but the sensation is short-lived when she feels a warm mouth enclosing one of her nipples and a warm hand kneads at another.

Kara sighs wantonly, both in pleasure and in satisfaction, and her hands hastily roam across the length of Lena’s back. Involuntarily, she spreads her legs to accommodate Lena’s body between them, and she doesn’t feel any sting of shyness when Lena deliberately touches the wetness pooling through her breeches.

“I want to feel you,” Lena whispers as her mouth comes up from its sojourn in the valleys of Kara’s chest and she says it in that voice filled with the reverence of a prayer. Leaning down, Lena circles her tongue on the edge of Kara’s ear.

A soft shudder and a sound between a moan and a growl come unbidden from Kara’s throat.

“Gods, that feels so good,” Kara moans. 

The dark-haired beauty pauses for a while, and she smiles a little bit when Kara expressively lets out a moan of displeasure, so Lena makes quick work of taking her robes off. Once she had pulled the clothing away, Kara’s hungry hands latched onto Lena’s breasts and Kara licked the valley between each mound. Then, she pays attention to both nipples by sucking on one and catching the other between her index finger and her thumb, moving in slow circles.

Lena lets out a soft mewl of pleasure.

“Ka...Kara,” Lena mutters brokenly as she tries to push Kara back down onto the bed. “I...want to feel you...”

For a while, the two of them stay suspended in time. Lena watches the way the shadows dance across Kara’s face. With one thumb, Lena gently traces the side of Kara’s face. She closes her eyes when she does, her thumb doing all the seeing for her, every crack and every fissure of her beloved hunter’s face.

“I want to see you,” she whispers to the hunter, and Kara complies by shimmying out of her breeches and kicking them off halfway down the bed.

Lena relishes in the sight of Kara’s fully-naked form as it is bathed by the glow of the dying fire in the hearth and the silver moonlight that filtered through the opened windows. In the half-light, she thinks Kara’s eyes are not the color of the sky, but the color of lavender fields in bloom at summertime.

“I shall only take what I need, and only if you allow it,” she says in a whisper, and Kara slightly nods her response. It is all the assurance she needs.

Her fingers resume their dance across Kara’s skin. Lena starts to trace the curve of Kara’s neck, the dip of her collarbone, down to the valley of her breasts. She lingers longer at one nipple, but she twists and turns around Kara’s taut stomach. Finally, when her fingers reach her blonde, downy curls, Kara lets out a long, slow exhale.

Curling her index finger, Lena runs it across Kara’s length, drawing out a shuddering moan from the blonde.

“Oh...oh Gods! Gods, Lena don’t ever sto--,” Kara mutters as she writhes with pleasure at the feeling of being full with Lena’s finger inside her. She lets out a loud moan when Lena adds a second finger, hissing slightly at the intrusion.

Slowly, Lena falls into a steady rhythm, one that Kara’s hips have started to fall into. When Lena pushes inside her, Kara’s hips rise to meet her halfway. Leaning forward, Lena pokes a tongue out to lick at the sensitive nub of nerves.

Lena feels nails digging into her shoulder blades as Kara grips her **_so hard_ **.

This spurs Lena on, and she sucks at the cluster of nerves between Kara’s legs as she starts to hasten her pace. Beneath her, she could see Kara almost bursting at the seams. She curls her finger, hitting the sweet spot inside Kara, and a carnal, primal scream tears out of Kara’s throat before her body spasms and her toes curl deliciously against Lena’s thighs.

**_When Kara falls apart, Lena is there to catch her._ **

She doesn’t pull out of Kara just yet. She enjoys the delectable experience of watching Kara’s body twitch and writhe with every teasing curl and flick of her fingers inside her. Kara’s face is contorted in pleasure, and it sends fire burning low in her belly knowing that she holds that much sway over the blonde.

When Kara opens a dreamy, haze-filled blue eye, Lena pulls her fingers out and starts to lick them. Kara’s eyes darken a few shades, her eyes are so filled with lust that they no longer look lavender, but the color of dark amethysts. It’s as if the blonde had something awakened inside of her -- something deep, and ancient, and primal. It is carnal and it is human.

“I shall take only what I need,” Kara breathes, dark eyes full of lust looking at her. “And only if you allow it.”

Lena nods. “And this I shall give freely to you.”

Lena sighs as Kara’s tongue delves into the cavern of her mouth. She knows that Kara could still taste her, and the thought alone had sent another bout of wetness gushing between her legs. She feels shaky hands cup her sex, and Lena falls forward, catching the sturdy shoulders of the hunter for support.

Kara’s hands and her actions are hasty, hurried, needy and almost wanton. Clutching at the blonde’s shoulders, she feels Kara sit up. Using the position to her advantage, she wraps her legs around Kara’s waist as she falls on her back against the downy mattress.

She gasps when she feels the intruding fingers entering her. Kara pushes fast and she pumps hard, causing slick sounds of wet skin slapping on wet skin and it drives Lena into a heady trance. She could feel every throb and every pump, her senses severely amplified.

At this moment, the world around them doesn’t matter. She’s not Lena, the all-powerful guardian of the forest. Kara is not the squandering hunter that roams the woods. At this moment, what only matters is **_them_ **.

Her thoughts disappear when she feels something hot and wet suck on her nipple. It’s gentle, and yet sometimes it squeezes in all the right ways and it fuels the fire and the coiling that is roiling deep below her belly. The throbbing and the pumping have amplified her senses ten-fold, and her blood is rushing against her ears. Lena clamps her eyes shut when Kara curls a finger inside her.

“Oh, don’t stop! Don’t sto--” 

She begs, she breaks off when she crosses the edge of inhibition. She vaguely remembers feeling her vision going blurry, the rush of wetness between her legs, the sound that came tearing through her throat when she teeters and she falls over the edge.

Her body jerks forward, her back straining in an arc as she rides out her unraveling. It feels like her spirit has flown into a realm of something else, and Kara is the only string holding her together. Her body twitches, as though something had quaked and split inside her.

She hears Kara faintly whispering something, peppering her sweaty forehead with butterfly kisses. The feeling of something strong and warm pulling her close floods into her thoughts, and the last thing she remembers before falling into sleep is the faint heartbeat echoing hers in the darkened room.

When Lena wakes, it’s almost morning. The embers in the hearth glow red, their flames long been snuffed off. There’s a faint glow of pink in the eastern sky. She turns to see Kara sleeping soundly next to her. Her haunted eyes trail the shape of Kara’s face as she tries to take it all in.

“Enjoying the view?” Kara says cheekily, cracking one eye open.

“Hardly,” Lena jokes. “I’m just merely committing you into memory. Go back to sleep, it’s still too early for you to rise out of bed.”

“Mhmm,” Kara just hums as she burrows herself into Lena’s naked chest. “Go back to sleep as well.”

Laughing slightly, she pulls Kara close and tries to close her eyes. The air is relatively warmer now, with the morning drawing near. She hears the chirping of birds, the slow waking-up of the early risers as they flit through the forest.

A large caw fills the air and Lena takes note of how uncharacteristically different the sound is from the smaller birds that rise long before the sun does. The large caw sounds again, and this time she has an idea of what sort of bird is making the sound. The third time it sounds, it’s too close to the cottage, just by the window, and Lena lifts her head just to see.

Something acidic bubbles into her throat when she takes in the bird’s black feathers and bloodshot eyes, and it only takes a flick of her finger when the raven drops dead onto the ground, its neck broken in four places.

**_Kara is sure she is dreaming._ **

The last thing she remembers is Lena telling her to go back to sleep. Now, she finds herself in the middle of the clearing where she had first met Lena so many months ago, right in the middle of the forest. The morning had dawn crisp and cold, and she had vague memories of going there earlier.

_Had she been walking in her sleep?_

She’s been raised hunting, and she could tell just by the lack of sounds alone that **_something_ **in the forest is moving. It’s something terrible and something big. It’s as though the entire forest has gone into hiding.

She feels him before she **_sees_ ** him.

Her entire body goes rigid, and the air has gone cooler in a matter of seconds, as if the entire world around her is dropped in perpetual shadow. A specter of a man appears before her, floating towards her as though the breeze is carrying him -- only that there is no wind blowing.

He wears a coarse gray robe that seems to billow in an absent wind. He is more like a shadow than man. Dark, inky tentacles protrude from his back. His face is haunting and grotesque, a part of his face is already falling off and rotten. The closer he gets to Kara, the colder it gets.

The man wordlessly holds up an accusing finger, gnarled and rotten. Kara could feel the air inside her lungs give out. It’s as though someone is squeezing the life out of her. Then, something sticks out of the man’s knobby finger. It crawls out of the skin and falls to the ground, where it starts to grow and grow until it becomes a gigantic scorpion.

Running for her life, Kara starts to dodge the scorpion’s attacks. She ducks, she slides, she tries to remember as much as she can about the forest she’s running through. Behind her, the scorpion barrels through the trees, seemingly unperturbed and unaffected. Trunks and splinters fly everywhere as the scorpion tries its best to outrun Kara.

Suddenly, Kara trips on a gnarled tree root and it takes the wind out of her. Her hand bleeds from where she had accidentally cut herself on a rock. Catching her breath, Kara could feel the tightening on her foot. When she looks down, she realizes with dread that a root is coiling around her legs, pinning her to the ground.

The scorpion towers over her, its stinger poised and ready for the kill.

“You’d do well to know where you stand, mortal. If you live past this, that is,” the man says in a calm voice before he disappears into a cloud of dark, black smoke, leaving only the scorpion who menacingly clicks its pincers at Kara.

“And I will make sure **_you don’t_ **,” the voice says in an eerie whisper.

When she opens her eyes again, she’s staring at the ceiling of Lena’s cottage. The dark-haired woman is leaning over her, eyes full of worry and concern. She blinks the sleep away from her eyes, trying to shake away the phantom pain on her legs.

“Is something the matter?” Lena asks. "You were restless in your sleep, your breathing shallow and troubled."

Kara shrugs, putting on a smile. “It’s nothing to worry about,” she tells Lena. “I just had a bad dream, that is all.”

Lena’s eyes take on a curious look. “And what is this dream about?” she asks.

Kara sighs. “I was at the clearing, the one where you told me of your name. Do you remember it?” she asks, and she smiles when Lena nods.

“How could I forget it, Kara. It’s the very clearing I was stumped by a mortal,” she tells the blonde-haired hunter. Kara gives her a tired smile. "What? It's where I gave my name to you, and you should do well to remember beings of my kind do not give out our names so lightly, for when you have our name, you will have power over us. You know this already."

Kara nods in acquiesce. “Well, I dreamt I was there. And...and there was this man with a strange, haunted look in his eyes and smoky tentacles about him. He wears a robe of smoke and darkness and everything around him _**just wilts**. _Then he sent a scorpion to kill me and I just kept running to es--” Kara stops halfway when she realizes that Lena is now lost in her own thoughts.

“Lena, are you alright?”

Lena mutters something under her breath, clearly preoccupied. When Kara takes her hand, she seems to reach back to reality and she gives Kara a weak smile. “I am alright, Kara. I am alright. There’s nothing to worry about,” she finally says. “I was just thinking about your dream. How terrible must it be.”

Kara nods. “Oh, it was. It felt like it was so real.”

“Listen, there’s something I need you to do. Something very, very important.”

“What is it?” Kara asks, clearly confused at the sudden change of behavior from the dark-haired woman. However, Kara takes it in stride. “If there is something you need of me to do, just ask it of me and I will do what I can.”

Lena sighs, her eyes conflicted. Finally, she sighs and takes Kara’s hand in her own, laying it on her chest. “Promise me that you will only take what you need, and leave the rest for the forests,” she says softly. “And that you will not forget me, for all the days to come into our lives.”

“Is something wrong?” Kara asks, but Lena shakes her head wildly. The hunter sighs. "That is a strange request, but I promise you regardless."

“No, my love. I promise you nothing is wrong. My forests are safe, always protected from anything that could harm you. Pay your dream no heed,” she says as she rises from the bed, gathering her things on the floor and donning her traveling robe.

“I shall leave now to see an old friend and ask for counsel. I will be back before sundown,” she says as she plants a loving kiss on Kara’s forehead. “Farewell for now, my love.”

“Twice,” Kara whispers.

“Huh?”

Kara stares into Lena’s eyes. “That’s twice you called me with that endearment. Your love,” she says.

“And I promise you’ll hear it the third time, and every day after that,” Lena says with a whisper as she walks out of the door.

Kara falls back to the bed. Lena might act strange sometimes, usually when something is amiss in the forest, and yet this morning's events feel different from all of the others. She thinks about the dream. It had been so real, as though the man had meant for her to die. She couldn't shake the feeling that something dark is lurking beneath the shadows of the trees, underneath the crevices of the land. Suddenly, the shadows of the forest seem no longer comforting, instead they look strange and haunting.

_Is it why Lena is suddenly so perplexed and she had to leave in a hurry?_

But, on the other hand, Lena had promised her that nothing can harm her while she’s in the forest, and that she shouldn’t let the dream get to her. So perhaps, Lena is right. Maybe Lena is just taking precautionary measures by seeing a friend.

Something stings at her hand. When she looks at it, she’s surprised to see a trickle of blood on the sheets. Turning her palm around, her brows furrowed in confusion when she sees a gaping wound, so identical to the one wound on her hand in her dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, my good friends, I thank you all for reading through this whole thing. I'll try my best not to get this fic into five-part piece levels. Thank you and be safe. Also, hit me up on Twitter! My username basically the same.


	4. Part IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Finally, we are now in the fourth part of this piece. Forgive me for the bit of delay, this has been actually a lot harder to write, mainly because the story kept slipping from my grasps and I had to delete blocks and sections of writing (just to make sure it doesn't stray off again).
> 
> Anyway, we have made it -- as promised, just four parts. It's a bummer because I've already thought of the next few parts of it, only that I feel I am stretching the narrative too long. Perhaps, for another night and for another time, we will revisit the story of Lena the Goddess-Witch of the Forest and Kara the Huntress.
> 
> In addition to this chapter, I have included a lot of imagery for this one, stuff like daggers and symbols as well as phrases spoken in a conjured language of my own. The meaning of the phrases will be posted at the end notes.
> 
> There are some images that I just snatched from the Good Ol' Internet and frankly, I have no idea whom it belongs now because I just saved whatever that popped up when the search returns come (forgive me for being such a lazy turd). More details of this are in the end notes.
> 
> However, there are symbols I have made -- the imaginary Naltorian charm and the Moonmark (you will know what these are later on, and if you read through). These symbols are pretty basic and they also were inspired from various TV shows and stories so they might look a bit familiar to some of you (to some degree and although not the same). I'll link them to a google drive file at the end notes.
> 
> With that said, I hope you enjoy this one. Thanks for hanging in there and waiting for this one.

**_He knows._ **

It’s the only thought that occupies her mind as Lena hurries down the glen just below the cliff where her cottage stands, her heart hammering against her chest. Of course, Lex would know. Nothing can hide away from Death and Darkness.

Clicking her tongue, Lena stops short in the middle of a small clearing. A glorious red stag with intricate antlers appears through the trees, grunting and trotting towards her. She affectionately rubs the stag’s flank, whispering words of comfort to the animal. The stag lowers its head.

“We must ride north, Actheon. Our road is long ahead,” she whispers as she climbs the massive back of the animal. Stroking his fur, Lena leans forward and clutches the mane of the great stag. “Ride fast as the wind, my friend. We must hasten. I have put a protective charm on Kara before we left, nevertheless, we must hurry.”

Over glade and glen, over field, forests, and fen, Actheon rides the wind. Lena feels the screaming of the air around her as they dash across the land, their path taking them north. The sun slowly rises above the trees. The terrain had changed from lush forests to rocky mountain passes, and still, Actheon rides fast.

“Faster, my friend. I’ve got no time to spare,” Lena urges the stag.

By mid-morning, Actheon had arrived at the foot of the imposing mountains that marked the end of the known world. Its tall peaks look down on them with icy tips, the whites of their ice gleaming in the morning light. They descend a narrow path that leads to a box canyon with tall walls of granite. Actheon stops just a few yards away from the cliff face.

Lena climbs down from Actheon’s back. Actheon’s breath comes up in raspy, white puffs of air and the dark-haired woman rubs the stag’s snout. “Thank you, my friend. You have done me great service today.”

She walks towards the cliff face. The rock glimmers in the sunlight. Searching for the telltale sign of the intricate Naltorian charm shaped like three circles forming a triangle, nestled in a circle broken into four parts. When her eyes find it, Lena runs her palms on the smooth surface of the symbol. 

Closing her eyes and touching her forehead to the smooth surface, Lena starts to whisper in a language only known to her kind. 

_“Nia Nal, ed’r faeth. Nyke ef’hen athvellar.”_

When Lena opens her eyes, she's no longer basking in the sunshine. Gone is the sunlight, now replaced with stuffy, stale air and shadows all around her. She's inside a deep, dark room with tall sconces filled with oil lamps at each of its four corners. Long shadows dance across the barren walls. Above her, the roof of the room rises to form a domed ceiling, where a small hole has allowed the very little light to get in.

Suddenly, bells start to tinker and ring a melodic tune. Despite the room being shut from the outside and the room has no windows, there is a draft of cool air circling through the darkened room.

“For whom my bells toll?” a voice calls. It’s warm and silky, rich like honey and wine. From the shadows, a maiden steps out. Her long hair flows over her shoulders, dark-brown and a little bit lighter than Lena’s, she has the youthful and open smile of an innocent woman. She had deep, chocolate brown eyes, one that carries both wisdom and danger. Her eyes are lined with a paste made from blue galena and ithmid, giving her wizened eyes a haunted look.

“Ah,” she gasps when she finally recognizes Lena. “My lady, you honor me with your presence,” she makes to kneel, but she suddenly feels the sharp sting of a dagger’s point being pushed to the soft dip of her throat. She swallows hard, watching as the dagger shakily floats between her and Lena.

“Spare me your pleasantries, you snake!” Lena calls threateningly from where she stands on the other side of the room and she makes the dagger disappear. “You know why I came here, Nia. You have seen me the moment I set foot into your realm.”

Nia seems to straighten at Lena’s curt tone. “I was being courteous, as is befitting of me to act in the presence of a being with stature such as yours,” she says almost sourly. Her eyes twinkle with excitement and the innocent smile on her face fades. The wizened eyes seem to glow white in the darkness as she retreats into shadow. The last thing Lena sees is a greedy grin fading into the darkness.

“You came here, Daughter of the Sky. Surely you know the price for what you ask of,” Nia’s voice whispers. “Your mother’s moonstone necklace should cover for it.”

“Dream on, you wretch! I will give my bloody hand first before I give you my mother’s necklace!” Lena snaps. “I carry a jewel of equal value, if not more. And I am willing to pay for a chance to see the order of things in the future and I have a few questions that need answers.”

Holding her left hand open, Lena lets the dust settle into her palm until it takes the form of a crown fashioned after deer antlers, white like abalone and smooth like ivory. The intricate antlers form around each other, snaking and overlapping until they form a ring. She holds the crown in her hand. Tendrils of white-blue light emerge from various places around the room, all of them gravitating towards Lena’s crown.

“The crown of the stags, the crown of the forests,” Nia’s disembodied voice says. The girl squeals in delight as the tendrils stroke the crown, much to Lena’s distaste. “How beautiful. It must be a thing of such matter to you, for you to give up such a revered crown in exchange for a few measly answers.”

Lena frowns. “You are not to speak of what I want to seek in your halls. Be quiet.”

Nia stands in front of her once again, her eyes perusing at the crown. “I won’t be needing that, however.”

Lena frowns. “What do you mean? I want to see what will happen in the future.”

The light from the sconces is suddenly snuffed out, the shadows no longer dance across the walls. Lena feels the darkness envelope her. Unlike her brother’s darkness, the darkness from Nia’s abode is not stifling, not suffocating. It just bothers her that she cannot see. She grips hard at her crown.

“Do you not see what it means now?” Nia’s voice rings across the room. It sounds as though she’s speaking from multiple sources, her voice coming from different directions. 

**"There is no future to see."**

Lena stamps her foot, willing for the fires in the sconces to burst forth. The sconces light up in raging flames. “You lie!” she screams, and she brandishes the dagger again. This time, she doesn’t suspend it in mid-air, she clutches it with her right hand. “You dare lie to me! Do you know who I am, of what I am capable of doing?”

Nia appears, her galena-eyes now flaring in anger. “And you dare mock me in the comforts of my home? You overstep your boundaries here, Daughter of the Sky!” she thunders, electricity crackling through the air around her.

“I don’t care what kind of high being you are, but perhaps you have forgotten that you are in my realm and you need the reminder that you hold little power here!” Nia spits out angrily at the dark-haired woman. “You dare mock me and my gift of sight when I only speak of the truth regarding that mortal you are so concerned about.”

The admittance that Nia knows about Kara is enough to make Lena stop in her tracks.

Her eyes soften at the sight of Lena’s distraught face. “The mortal’s fate had been written a long time ago. The moment you have met her and decided to fall in love with her, the Fates have started weaving the last threads of her life,” she finally exhales. “It had been one of your vows, wasn’t it? You must not tie your love to any mortal man. You know of this. Such is the price of our existence, to live in loneliness and emptiness for all of eternity, while the mortal men who have won our affection fade into nothing but dust and memory. You know this, even before it had started, and yet you seek for my wisdom to look for a way to thwart fate’s design.”

Lena lets go of the dagger, and her other hand loses its grip on the crown. Both fall onto the stone floor with a harsh clatter. “I...” she finally heaves as she drops to her knees. “I do not know what to do.”

Nia floats across the room, tendrils of white-blue light trailing beneath her feet and she cradles Lena’s face in her hands. “You know what to do, Daughter of the Sky,” Nia whispers as she lays the discarded crown on Lena’s head. 

Nia starts to retreat to the darkness. “You should keep your crown, for such things mean little compared to the price asked for the cost of what you are bound to do,” Nia says as she completely fades into the dark. “You know what I speak of, and it will cost so much. For such a manner of eternal nature comes with a very steep price.”

Lena’s jaw tightens and she nods, clearly understanding what Nia had meant. “I am willing to pay the price,” Lena insists.

The bells are ringing again, tinkling like wind chimes against a staunch breeze. Nia’s exuberant laughter echoes throughout the darkened room. “Oh but you misunderstand me,” she finally says, her voice merely a phantom echo hiding in the shadows.

**_“The price is not yours to pay, Daughter of the Sky.”_ **

Lena blinks, and she finds herself staring back at the three circles on the cliff face again. The sun is already high in the sky. Actheon trots towards her, and a gust of wind blows across the box canyon. The red stag makes a huffing sound, nudging impatiently at Lena’s shoulder.

“You are right Actheon,” Lena finally says. “We are done here. We must hurry back home. We must ride fast and quick,” she tells the stag as she climbs on its back. Actheon bolts through the terrain, quick as lightning.

By the time they have reached the cottage, it’s almost mid-afternoon. Lena walks into her home and finds a napping Kara on the recliner. She could feel the potent power of her protection coursing beneath the skin of her lover, and she sits on one side of the recliner to watch the hunter sleep.

It doesn’t take long for Kara to stir, her body suddenly jerking in an obtrusive way. Lena scrambles to her feet, shock washing over her when she realizes that Kara has her eyes still closed. Once the initial shock had ebbed away, Lena shakes Kara to wake her, but the blonde-haired hunter remains asleep.

Large beads of sweat form at the crest of Kara’s forehead. Kara’s face contorts in pain, and an unholy scream fills the entire cottage, shaking it through its very foundations. Lena stands helplessly by, for the dreams are not Kara’s.

_How had this happened? The charm had been potent, it had been strong even. Did her brother somehow manage to work his way through her magic?_

“It doesn’t take long for your lover to fall asleep, little sister,” Lex’s voice calls out to her. It’s distant, almost being overpowered by the screams coming from Kara. “And no one can hide from the darkness.”

She turns around to seek the source of the voice, for any spot where Lex might be hiding himself in, but she only sees a raven by the windowsill that immediately flew away. It fills her with a cold dread then, when she realizes that is truly nowhere inside her home. 

She tries to go back to pressing tasks at hand. She rushes to fetch some water outside and brings it into the recliner. Desperately so, she tries to wipe Kara’s sweaty forehead with a soft cloth and she tries to murmur comforting words.

“Mhmppph...sto--” Kara grumbles, muttering and writhing in pain.

She had never done it before with mortals. Even then, she had only done it with the animals she feels she had the closest bond with because the longer she does it, the uglier it gets for the ones she is using her powers on. She takes a deep breath. She’s about to inflict one of the powers that she had tried not to use so much.

She laughs ruefully. It’s ironic. The very reason she had stopped herself from marking mortals is **_that she viewed their minds to be so precious and it never needed the tarnishing of magic or her powers._ **And now here she is, with the most precious life she’s ever known, and she’s about to intrude.

A tear runs down her cheeks as she runs a shaking hand over Kara’s face. she lets out a shuddering breath. “Forgive me, my love,” she says softly, the tears falling onto the stone floor. “Forgive me for what I am to do.”

She lays a warm hand on Kara’s forehead, just above her brows. Closing her eyes, she offers a small incantation. Slowly, she pours herself into Kara’s troubled mind.

The first thing she takes note of is how **_dark_ ** the surroundings are. Though even in the darkness she knows that this is the clearing she had first met Kara, and she knows every nook and cranny of this forest like the back of her hand, she still couldn’t shake the fact that it is so dark, as though the entire forest is shrouded in shadow.

There, in the middle of the clearing, Lex stands in a mass of swirling dark smoke. “Lena,” he says by way of greeting.

His cool demeanor is more than enough to make Lena rush to him and gut him out alive, but Lena keeps her anger in check, for she knows that lashing out is what Lex had planned for. He had always banked on the idea that she would let her emotions get the best of her.

So, she reminds herself it’s all just but a dream.

“She took Mother’s necklace,” Lex holds up the moonstone necklace for Lena to see. It’s dull, the remnant of the Moon’s heart. “I found her by the riverside earlier, and I meant to talk to her, persuade her of leaving you to save you from the heartache.”

“So you now make my decisions for me?” Lena hisses.

“I only meant to protect your stature,” her brother continues. “I only meant to protect your power and your duties. I only meant to do what is good for you. I only mea--”

“Good for me? Who are you to tell me what is good for me?” Lena rounds angrily at him, grabbing her by the collar of his flowing robes. “Tell me where she is,” she commands angrily. Lex only stares at her.

“ **WHERE?!** ”

Lex sighs, looking bored as if he couldn’t care less. He makes a tilting motion of his head, the dark tendrils caressing the side of his face. “By the pools. I sent the scorpion after her. I felt slighted that she stole Mother’s necklace.”

Lena pushes him to the ground. “Leave my forests and my realm, and never cross paths with me again,” she hisses at him before dashing off into the trees. “Take all of your rotten tricks with you, you disgusting bastard. I shall forever harbor enmity towards you for this!”

A horrid smile blooms across Lex's face, evil and malevolent. "You cannot save her, little sister. You brought this upon yourself," he says, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

She doesn't think twice. The moment Lex disappears from her grasp, she runs to the pools. Past the trees, she flies, the foliage around her is one great blur.

**_Too slow, I must get to Kara!_ **

She descends the dip that leads to the pools. When she gets there, her heart leaps into her throat when she catches sight of a giant scorpion towering over Kara, who is now battered and bruised from all the dodging and running. The hunter is now boxed into a corner -- with nothing but a waterfall behind her, and steep rocks on both sides.

"Kara! It's trying to lure you into a trap!" she warns, but her warnings fall on deaf ears as Kara is being pushed back closer and closer to the waterfall.

The scorpion is now poised to kill, raising its poisoned stinger high into the air. It strikes and misses, and it tries to strike again, only to have its attacks being dodged by Kara.

"No!" Lena screams when she sees Kara trip on a rock and falls onto the ground. 

The scorpion does not waste time. It brings down its stinger with all its might and buries it deep in Kara's side.

"No!" Lena screams, just as the scorpion explodes into a thick cloud of dark smoke.

"Remember, little sister -- I am merely doing this to protect you and your stature," she hears Lex's voice coming from the cloud of smoke.

She seethes in anger, wanting so much to confront and curse her brother to the ends of the Earth, but Kara is falling into the water, and she needs help. Not minding the slippery rocks, Lena runs the steady incline leading to the water's edge.

When she gets to where Kara is, she takes a look at her lover. The hunter's face is pale, white as a sheet. The wound on her left side, just below the ribs, lies an ugly, black gap -- the fatal wound from the scorpion’s poisonous tail. It smells of rot and decay. From the wound, purple tendrils of poison run across the skin in a thousand directions. Running a hand over Kara's face, she realizes she's burning up.

“Come, let’s go home,” she whispers, almost brokenly. Her voice betrays the fear in her heart. Immediately, Lena pulls them back to wakefulness.

The sun is warm against her face when Lena opens her eyes. Kara lies on the recliner, her blue eyes wide open, irises dilated and her chest is rising and falling erratically, drawing out every breath with difficulty. Blood pools on the recliner, spilling onto the stone. Lena’s heart breaks when she sees the gaping wound on Kara’s side. She finally gets it now, how her brother had inflicted a dream into her lover’s sleep and then hurt her from there.

"Lena," Kara whispers, her eyes full of fear and worry and tears. "I...I did nothing wrong, didn't I? I only loved you. I did...did not mean to...to..."

A slew of tears bursts forth from Lena's eyes. "Shhh...quiet my love, for you are terribly wounded," she whispers. "You've never wronged me. Never wronged anyone. You did nothing wrong."

"I...I couldn't kill the scorpion…" Kara mutters, and blood seeps out of her lips. "I...did not steal your...your Mother' neck--"

Lena gently puts a shivering finger over Kara's lips. "I know, love. You'd never do that. It was my brother all along," she spits out harshly.

"Lena," Kara whispers. "I feel cold, my love."

"What would you have me do?" Lena says brokenly. She could feel the life ebbing away from Kara. She feels so helpless. The wound on Kara’s side continues to fester, the poison spreading with every passing moment.

**_What is she protecting if she cannot protect her own?_ **

Kara's unfocused gaze looks up at her. "I shall only take what I need, only if you allow it," she says, staring at Lena's eyes for a long time.

"This I shall give to you freely," Lena whispers and she lays a tender kiss on Kara's forehead. She feels Kara drift away into unconsciousness. She knows, Kara’s life is now hanging by a single thread, and it’s not long until the thread snaps.

**_“You know what I speak of, Daughter of the Sky -- and you know what it costs. For such things like the Mark comes with a very steep price.”_ **

Lena wonders if this was what Nia had meant.

**_“The price is not yours to pay, Daughter of the Sky.”_ **

It washes over her like cold rain. It’s not her price to pay, for it is Kara’s.

Biting the insides of her lips. She must make her decision now, or she'll forever lose Kara. Closing her eyes, she wills her darkest powers to come forth, the ones she is even afraid of using. With a deep, somber voice, she starts to intone in a whisper.

_"C'ith an beth nin, har asfal gwilith."_

With a flick of her wrist, her dagger materializes on her left palm and she moves quickly to cut the skin of her right thumb. With her blood, she writes two crescents nestled against each other on Kara's chest, just above her breasts, on the spot where her collar bones meet. The blood seeps into Kara's skin, forming an indelible mark. 

When she’s done, Lena lets out a nervous exhale.

**_It is done. Kara is now one with her._ **

"What have you done?!" Lex screeches as he appears in a flurry of dark clouds at the doorway of her cottage. His eyes are livid, his mouth twisted into an angry grimace.

"I have done what I should have done long ago!" Lena counters.

Lex lets out a laugh. "You have squandered all that you have for...for this mortal?"

A tired smile escapes Lena's lips, clearly spent from the magic she had used to save Kara. "She is no longer mortal, brother. I have marked her as my own. As such, she will spend her eternity by my side."

Lex huffs. "No matter, the poison had set in, you cannot save her."

"You do not understand the nature of my powers," Lena says. "The Mark lets me claim my own, and whoever bears it not only becomes mine, they become one with me. I can bestow them my powers, to rule the mountains and glade by my side. They will fall only in second to me. And I can take it just as easily as I have given it. I can give them life, one that you have so wrongfully taken," she turns to Kara’s unconscious body lying on the recliner.

A dark, black goo seeps out of the hunter’s wound. Slowly, the poison is drawing out of Kara's body. Kara hacks a cough out of her throat and Lena involuntarily moves between Kara’s reviving body on the recliner and Lex.

"Your sick, twisted game is over now," she says threateningly at her brother. “Leave now, and never come back.”

Lex looks appalled, as though he could not believe what had just happened in front of his eyes. His mouth curls. “You dare banish me? You dare take away a soul at Death’s Door with your mark? You dare steal from what is mine? How dare you!”

“Leave now!” Lena thunders. “She is not dead yet. She is alive, living, and here with me. The dominion over life is mine, and you should do well not forget that.”

“Your selfishness will have consequences! You vowed not to tie your love to any man, mortal or not!"

Lena stares at him. “I have been everything, but I have never been selfish. I have nurtured and allowed **_everything to thrive._ **”

Then, Lena raises her hand to banish him from her realm. She gathers her powers and with a loud, booming voice she screams at her brother. “Leave now and never come back! Go back to the realm of shadows where you came! This realm is not yours for the taking, not for now, not for eternity!”

Lex’s mouth curls into an ugly frown. “When she wakes and finds out what you’ve done, she will resent you.”

He lets out an unholy hiss, gathering his shadowy robes about him, his dark tendrils trailing behind him as he flees Lena’s dominion. Her chest heaves in the effort as she watches the last vestiges of Lex’s power leave her forests. 

When she feels none of Lex’s influence over her dominion, she makes quick work to tend to Kara. The blonde hunter is still unconscious, but her breathing steady and even. The once-gaping wound on Kara’s side is no longer there, and the only testament of its existence is the pink, smooth flesh that stands out against the ivory of Kara’s skin.

Hot tears of joy fall from her eyes as relief floods into her. Slowly, she gathers Kara in her arms, and with what little strength she has, she carries the hunter back to her bed. As she lays Kara on the bed, she opens her blue eyes.

“Lena?” Kara asks. “What happened? I remember I had a dream. You were there and your brother was there. He...he…”

Lena nods. “I know. He did unspeakable things to you,” she finally says. Her thoughts go back to the last words Lex had left her, about how Kara would ultimately resent her when she’d know what she had done. 

It worms into her heart like a maggot, curling like a festering wound.

“You were there,” Kara smiles. “You saved me from him. I remember feeling so cold and alone, darkness consuming me and then you were there, you...you did something and it pulled me out of the cold darkness.”

Her gaze drops, avoiding the bright eyes that look so much like the blue sky. “I...I didn’t save you, Kara. I wasn’t able to. I...I did something hideous and terrible,” she finally admits, her heart breaking into pieces. “And I know what I did was unforgivable, but I beg of you, forgive me for doing it without your consent.”

Kara sits up from the bed, her hand cupping the intricate symbols written on her chest. “Do you mean this mark on my chest? It's the moonmark, isn’t it?”

Lena is stumped. “How do you know about it?”

She shrugs. "I grew up hearing stories of how the Lady of the Forest gives gifts to her favored hunters. They say the moonmark is the most revered among these gifts and has never been given to anyone," Kara says. Her blue eyes twinkle. "Besides, I might have played possum and overheard a bit earlier."

Lena looks at her, surprised and appalled. Kara grabs her lover's hand and puts it close to her heart, right next to the moonmark.

"You shouldn't let your brother's words get to you. He's a master of deceptions," she runs a palm over Lena's cheek. "You know that I will never resent you, do you?"

Lena nods. "I know."

“Come lie with me," Kara beckons her and Lena complies joyfully. She curls her body next to Kara's on the bed, not even thinking of how she might get her sheets and blankets dirty because she's still wearing her traveling cloak.

"We had a long day," Kara says as she settles beside the blonde.

"Indeed we had," Lena nods, feeling the tiredness seep into her bones. "We should catch some sleep, my love. When we wake, I'll have supper ready."

"How are you with so much power but you cannot make us supper while we sleep? I mean, we could sleep here and have a feast waiting for us when we wake up,” Kara mumbles tiredly into Lena’s hair, and Lena pulls herself impossibly closer to Kara’s chest.

The dark-haired beauty laughs. "You are incorrigible," she mutters.

"I was being practical," Kara says, and she lifts her body to plant a long, deep kiss on Lena's lips.

Lena sighs into the kiss and Kara smiles.

"Well, does this mean you agree with me and we'll rest up here while you make sure we don't starve tonight because I want roast boar slathered in honey and tender pheasant chops," Kara grins at her.

"Just because you are more like me now doesn't mean you can demand whatever you want, you lazy slick," Lena rolls her eyes at Kara.

Kara burrows her face into the crook of Lena's neck, laughing. It sends a reverberating shudder all over Lena's skin. 

"I know," Kara says. The blonde hunter lies on her side, propping her head with a hand, and she traces lazy circles on Lena’s shoulders with her other hand. “I...when I was so close to dying today, I realized how petty it is to live a life without you.”

The dark-haired beauty stares into Kara's blue eyes. The golden afternoon sun spills its light through the windows, and the golden light frames Kara's face like a halo.

"You are so beautiful," Lena sighs dreamily.

Running her thumb over Lena's lips, the hunter smiles as she leans her forehead against Lena's. "I shall take what you only allow of me, only when you allow it."

Lena smiles, inhaling Kara's scent. "And this I shall give freely."

Kara smiles, and she curls up to Lena's side. Soon, her breaths become steady and even, and Lena wills her eyes to close, matching her lover’s breathing with hers.

When Kara wakes, she sees Lena sitting on the bed, her back propped by the teakwood headboard, her haunting eyes watching her. She gives Lena a small smile, one that Lena returns wholeheartedly.

“How long have you been up?” Kara asks.

“Not for long,” Lena tells her. “Enough to count the freckles on your face.”

Kara laughs. “And how many freckles do I have?”

“Nine,” Lena simply answers as she swings her legs over the bed. She walks towards the window, the light from the moon illuminating half of her body in a silvery, otherworldly light. She turns to face Kara. “Three under your left eye, four on your right, one on the dip of your nose, and one between your brows.”

“I bet you used your powers for that,” Kara says sullenly.

“Oh, don’t sulk,” Lena says. “Come, let’s hunt.”

“It’s nighttime?” The sentiment falls from Kara’s lips, more like observation and a question rather than a protest. “Your eyes might be sharp at night, but you know I am a sucker when it’s about hunting during nighttime.”

“Your eyes are sharper now, love. Come, I will show you just how powerful you are now,” Lena says, walking back to the bed and leading Kara outside. The stars are bright in the sky, the moon high in the sky and slightly gibbous than it had been days ago.

“You are now of my own, one with the moon,” Lena tells her. “All-powerful, you can will yourself to turn into any animal of your choosing, the way I can turn myself into any animal I want whenever I want it,” Lena crouches forward, and in a blink of an eye, she turns into a wolf with inky-black fur. Her eyes still hold the same uneven colors, the difference now is they are sharper.

Kara sucks in a breath, watching the majestic beast.

“Turn yourself into a wolf as well, and hunt alongside me,” Lena says in a voice echoing inside Kara’s mind. 

Kara crouches, willing herself to turn into a wolf. When she opens her eyes, the sky seems brighter, as if it is early dusk. Her smell is a lot more acute, her hearing more sensitive. She could see the stars in a different color.

“Come,” Lena says through her thoughts and they lope into the forest.

They come to the river. When Kara looks into the placid river, she sees her reflection. With her sharper eyes and her fur is golden, even in the moonlight. She imagines that her coat is even darker, perhaps a rusted gold, in the sunlight.

“When I was a young child, I was promised to never tie my love with another man, mortal or not,” Lena tells her as they stand facing the forest beyond them. “But you are not just man and beast, and you are no mere mortal now.”

“You’ve always been smart,” Kara says, but the sound that tears through her throat is between a yip and a bark. She winces, wagging her wolf-tail in skewed patterns, and she could feel herself shrink in embarrassment.

“Use your thoughts, my love. Speak to me with your thoughts,” Lena patiently tells her.

“It takes some getting used to,” Kara says in her thoughts, and she hears Lena laugh. She lets out a huff, her wolf-breath puffing white air. “I’ll get used to this,” she says as she paws the ground beneath her.

“Come run with me then,” Lena says. “The night is young and cool.”

Kara lets out a yip as she bolts through the trees. Laughing, Lena bolts after her, their paws trampling the leaves on the forest floor. Kara’s blood sings for she is one with the forest and one with her love. Together, they scramble towards the rocky outcrop overlooking the river, never stopping once not until they reach the top.

When they do reach the top of the outcrop, Kara lets out a howl, and soon Lena follows. The moon shines down upon them, and the stars start to sing.

Kara could hear them all.

**(#)**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nia Nal, ed’r faeth. Nyke ef’hen athvellar.  
> TRANSLATION: Nia Nal, open your doors. I seek your wisdom.
> 
> C'ith an beth nin, har asfal gwilith.  
> TRANSLATION: One with me, one of mine.
> 
> The folder contains photos of Lena's dagger, Lena's crown, the red stag, the charms and the marks and a whole lot others. The file names are essentially the names of what they are. For the images, the Google Drive folder link is this: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_3juWdrJICZQ9OYRG1JA0rAG58saWFBs?usp=sharing
> 
> So, with all that out of the way, all that's left is my sincerest thanks. It has been an honor to bring forth this world inside my head, and a very humbling experience to resonate with so many of you in a level that we can only resonate with through stories. It is such a joy to bring this world to light. While this story might end on this day, perhaps some other day, we will revisit this world and look at it through different eyes.
> 
> For now, I wish you Peace and Light. May the Sun and the Moon smile upon you.
> 
> \-- Bubba
> 
> P.S. Let me know if the damn link works.


End file.
